The scientists of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) have concluded that the sea bed surrounding the Indian peninsula is a treasure trove of millions of tons of precious metals and minerals.

In early 2014, huge presence of marine resources like lime mud, phosphate-rich and calcareous sediments, hydrocarbons, metalliferous deposits and micronodules was discovered off  Mangaluru, Chennai, Mannar Basin, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and around Lakshadweep.

This triggered a deeper and extensive exploration leading to a larger treasure trove.

After three years of exploration and generation of 181,025 square kilometres of high-resolution seabed morphological data, GSI has confirmed the presence of more than 10,000 million tons of lime mud within the Exclusive Economic Zone of India.

The presence of phosphate sediment off Karwar, Mangaluru and Chennai coasts, gas hydrate in the channel-levee system of Mannar Basin off the Tamil Nadu coast, cobalt-bearing ferromanganese crust from the Andaman Sea and micro-manganese nodules around Lakshadweep Sea have also been established.

The 'High-Resolution Seabed Mapping and Natural Resource Evaluation' was carried out by three state-of-the-art research vessels — Samudra Ratnakar, Samudra Kaustabh and Samudra Saudikama.

Ashish Nath, superintendent geologist at GSI said that the main objectives of this exploration were to determine potential zones of favourable mineralization and take account of marine mineral resources.